My Maryland

For those who were taught in a Maryland School in the 1950s you will remember this book.  Usually Maryland History was taught in the 4th grade.  The book is by Beta Kaessman.

Below from the Baltimore Sun

Beta Kaessmann Manakee, 95, author of the standard textbook used to teach Maryland history to elementary school students, died Dec. 19 at Church Home and Hospital, where she resided at the time of her death.

Her work -- "My Maryland, Her First 300 Years" -- was published in 1934 by Ginn & Co. and remains in print. She was assisted in the writing by her husband, local historian Harold Manakee, and the late Joseph Wheeler, longtime director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

She also helped research the 1931 literary and historical map of Maryland drawn by artist Edwin Tunis. The color lithograph map remains in print and is displayed throughout the state.

For nearly a decade she was a top aide to Wheeler, the Pratt director who envisioned and oversaw construction of the Central library building at 400 Cathedral St.

"She was in charge of moving all the library's voluminous records housed in steel cases from the old building on Mulberry Street to a temporary site, then into the new building. There wasn't enough money around to pay us the hours we worked in those days," recalled Richard Hart, a Pratt colleague who headed the humanities department.

Born in Baltimore, Beta Kaessmann was schooled in Claremore, Okla., and attended the University of Chicago.

Her father, Frederick D.J. Kaessmann, taught for many years at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

In 1919, she became a librarian-statistician for Standard Oil Co. in New York, and, two years later, took at similar position for American Petroleum Institute. She returned to Baltimore and the Pratt in the mid-1920s and was named assistant to the librarian in 1930.

In 1934, she married local historian Harold Manakee, then a teacher in the city public schools. He later became an official of the Maryland Historical Society. He died in 1974. Mrs. Manakee was a member of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Incarnation. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she remained active there as a volunteer working to get Asian refugees started in Baltimore.

A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the Cathedral, 4 E. University Parkway.

Pub Date: 1/04/97